Man warns of phone scam after wife stung
‘‘It wasn’t until after she had read out the numbers and they asked her for more money that she twigged.’’ Michael Shearer
After his wife fell prey to a phone scam Michael Shearer warns it is not just the elderly that can fall victim to phone scams.
Last week a Taupo man was left $8000 out of pocket after being tricked into purchasing apple iTunes vouchers to pay off a tax debt.
Shearer’s wife, in her 30s, was conned $3000 in the same scam.
He hopes speaking out about the details of the call, and the scammers’ tactics, will stop others falling foul of the scam.
‘‘We received a strange message on our phone and thought we should probably follow that up,’’ he said.
‘‘My wife called back and that was when they got her... she doesn’t usually fall for tricks.’’
‘‘He said you are owed unpaid tax and there were some options to deal with it.
‘‘You could take it to court, or pay it immediately. They gave her an out and she took it.’’
The number had a Wellington prefix and gave false identification and file numbers.
After a prolonged phone call she eventually gave in to demands, worried about jail time. Still on the phone to the scammers, due to threat of arrest, she headed to a retailer to purchase iTunes vouchers.
‘‘They didn’t let her off the phone and give her a chance to stop and think about what she was doing,’’ he said.
‘‘It wasn’t until after she had read out the numbers and they asked her for more money that she twigged.’’
Shearer managed to call iTunes to try and stop the purchase but, while they might be able to lock the scammers account, he was told they would not be able to refund the lost money.
Shearer said it is important for people to realise that not only elderly can fall for this scam.
‘‘It is more cunning then appears from the outside.
‘‘I would also ask retailers to be on the look out for any distressed people ordering large numbers of iTunes vouchers,’’ he said.
‘‘It is surely not common for people to purchase thousands of dollars worth of vouchers at a time.’’ it